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If the Free Music Archive has started sounding a little more hardcore to you lately, shake your quiet down fists at WFMU's Distort Jersey City. Here are a couple acts they've recently recorded live.

According to their Facebook, Pink Reason’s interests are tragedy, suffering and excess. Hailing from eternal swing state Ohio, the Columbus quartet recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. They’ve toured Europe, Australia and New Zeleand, releasing a slew of albums, singles and E.P.s in between on the Siltbreeze label and Savage Quality Recordings. Singer Kevin Failure’s impassioned growl underpinned by Matt Horsehit’s rhythm guitar make for lofi that’s as excessive as it gets.

Nuclear Santa Claust, as the name suggests, are both toxic and explosive. With Jim Orgin and Zach G’s shared vocals and three chord strums and Brenden Beecy’s crusading drums, the trio wears its Ramones inspiration on its leather jacket sleeves. But the NSC sound is more frenzied and ramshackle than its predecessors. ‘Bikini Island’, off their self-titled 2011 EP is the Rockaway Beach for a polluted generation.

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Bango's song "Bunny In A Bunnysuit" was featured in a watch commercial starring Nicole Kidman.

Call him a D.I.Y. Man: Frank Bango is an independent artist. The New York singer-songwriter, whose music has been compared to Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Ray Davis, set up his own imprint, Sincere Recordings, in 1994. Since then he’s been self-releasing his warm, guitar-driven pop songs.

Along the way he’s found novel ways to pay the bills, soundtracking an Omega watch commercial by lending his song "Bunny In A Bunnysuit" to the Nicole Kidman-fronted campaign. And last year he successfully kickstarted his most recent LP Touchy Feely. Fans who pledged $250 were rewarded with soup at the B&H Dairy on 2nd Avenue while Bango and Ricky Vesecky "recounted some of their most colorful adventures culled from years of being outsiders on the inside." That's what you call D.I.Y at its tastiest.

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Seattle’s KEXP delivered us a great mix of some of their best sessions from January to February of this year, featuring local and international artists and bands. Here's our guide to the tracks:

From Seattle, Sandrider preview their self-titled debut, released on Good To Die Records. 'Crysknife' sees them at their loudest. Sprawling 13-piece ensemble Orkestar Zirkonium list funk, punk, klezmer, and Eastern European and Indian styles as their inspiration, resulting in a distinct sound that's both boisterous and drum-and-brass-driven.

Representing Portland next is warehouse band Blouse who preview its self-titled debut with a song called ‘Into The Black.’ Quasi, an indie trio formed in 1993, comprising ex husband and wife Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss and bassist Joanna Bolme, play 'Case Of No Way Out'. Laura Gibson is a Portland-bases folk singer and songwriter. ‘La Grabde,’ is the title track of her acclaimed 2012 album.